News

Riccall wind turbine plan is rejected by committee

PLANS to build a wind turbine near Selby have been refused by planners, almost a year after they were first submitted.

The scheme to build a single turbine, which would be about 231 feet high from the ground to the tip of the blade, on land at Riccall Business Park received a number of objections from local residents when plans were first submitted last summer.

Speaking to the Selby District Council planning committee earlier this month, a planning officer explained that the scheme "was considered to be acceptable in principle" in this location, but a representative for local residents and parish councillor John Duggan spoke against the application.

Howard Ferguson was one of 23 people who objected to the plans on the council's website, compared to the four who supported it.

He said: "Local opinion should be a major factor in deciding this application and the take up by local residents in the proposed community ownership scheme should be a major planning consideration. Under new planning guidance the need for renewable energy does not outweigh consideration of residential amenity."

The committee chose to refuse the application because it felt "the proposal would impact on the landscape and the visual amenity of the surrounding area", "impact on the amenity of a number of properties on Selby Road", "have an impact on Riccall Business Park", and the noise it would generate would impact on nearby homes and businesses.

The committee also said the benefits of the wind farm to the local environment, economy and community, "do not outweigh the substantial harm caused to the residential amenity" of the occupants of nearby holiday cottages and other homes.